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Weekly shows every Tuesday – since 2013!

Topics:

- High Sierra 10.13.3 was released today, which makes sense as Joe just updated his PsiTool drives yesterday. Also released were iOS 11.2.5, Safari updates for 10.11, 10.12, 10.13, and Security Update 2018-001. Note that security updates are padded to three digits... At the rate we're going, might Apple hit 100 security updates this year? That's one every three days!

- If you want to get emails from Apple about product security when updates are released, subscribe to the Security-announce list

-Sam has been experiencing an issue where replying to a selected message in Apple Mail actually creates a reply to the incorrect message. A similar issue has occurred to him in voicemails. At this point Jerry thinks Sam needs to have his eyes checked.

-Jerry gives us an update on his virtual receptionists, Smith.ai as Sam is exploring similar options. A natural progression would be a service that can not only answer calls, but support your clients like our recent sponsor, FLEXdesk

-In a recent support call with a client, Jerry finds that their MacBook Air had a failed SSD module. These situations can lead to having to explain the "why" to customers. Sometimes hardware simply fails.

-Sam has follow up on using Daylite with his business and finds some functionality that he wasn't aware ofhttp://www.daylitemac.com

-CCP Theater! Jerry and Joe role play what you might encounter with new client calls

-Joe gives us an update on his new/used 2015 MacBook Pro. He recounts an issue where the battery reports that it needs to be serviced and then changes to a "good" condition. He reports an uptime of 31 – nay, 33 days. Joe and Sam remark that they don't recall having had more than 10 days of uptime with their MacBook Pro 2016 models, although Sam has had better stability lately.

-Joe also follows up about having used Migration Assistant to switch to his new, used (and apparently slightly bruised) MacBook Pro 15-inch 2015, and notes that Safari Extensions needed to be reinstalled, surprisingly. But at least VPN configurations were not an issue, unlike back in the days of Mavericks (and Yosemite too?)

-Jerry is very excited about an iOS app called Drafts, a note taking app with impressive functionality. Drafts is $4.99 in the App Storehttps://agiletortoise.com/drafts/

-To start the new year, we are very pleased to be joined on our first live show of 2018 by Weldon Dodd of Rewind Technology in Denver, CO. Weldon hangs with the crew as another host in case Sam goes missing again.https://rewindtech.com

-Some things never change, the old HCS land grab jokes are in full swing

-Joe discusses the first zero day exploit of 2018, actually launched via tweet on New Year's Eve. Check out the IOHIDeous narrative on GitHub, kind of interesting! The vulnerability exists in a process called IOHIDUserClient which the macOS limits to having only a single instance at any given time, which happens to be spawned by WindowServer. So in order to exploit the vulnerability, we need to kill the WindowServer process. But terminating it requires admin privileges and essentially reboots the GUI, so this is not a viable mode of exploitation. But it turns out that by logging out the user, WindowServer releases its IOHIDUserClient temporarily, giving the exploit enough time to spawn its own instance of IOHIDUserClient and leverage it to compromise the system. The exploit can use "launchctl reboot logout" which does not display a warning dialog. The exploit can also use an AppleScript command to send loginwindow an event called "AppleEventReallyLogOut" (osascript -e 'tell application "loginwindow" to «event aevtrlgo»'), and loginwindow apparently doesn't care who sent the event, but it does display a dialog box as if the user selected "Log Out" from the Apple menu.

-Jerry wonders if this will be on the CCP test

-Sam recalls a story working after hours at a client when the alarm goes off

-Weldon shares his story of a Promise RAID gone wrong. Friends don't let clients pull drives out of RAID drive bays. It also leads to a further discussion about how to handle RAID solutions and future expansion.

- followup on Joe's migration to G Suite: I've stopped seeing progress bars and large numbers counting up and down in my sleep, and I've stopped having nightmares about drag and drop targetsSHARED CONTACTS FOR GMAIL - https://www.gmailsharedcontacts.com

when cleaning up old mail using your IMAP client with Gmail:

1) "When I mark a message in IMAP as deleted": change to "Auto-Expunge off - Wait for the client to update the server."

2) When a message is marked as deleted and expunged from the last visible IMAP folder: change to "Move the message to the Trash"

3) Under the Labels section, remove the check mark next to All Mail and Important so that those labels will not show in IMAP

- Sam tells about a client sending out bulk emails and wishing to set up their own email server.

- Joe Share his thoughts on his new iPhone X

- Sam shares a story about declining service to a potential problem client.

- We'd like to thank all of our Patreon sponsors for their tremendous support of Command Control Power. You really help make the show possible. We've talked about burnout recently... This show has been a labor of love, and your support sends a signal that you appreciate what we're doing so it really helps encourage us to keep doing it and putting out a show every single week. We've released over 232 episodes over the course of the last four years! We really appreciate all 40 of our patrons. For this monthly live episode, we'd like to specifically thank those patrons that pledge at a certain level. You truly make the show possible and we really appreciate it.

We're sponsored this week by Watchman Monitoring, a favorite tool of ours that should be in every professional consultant's toolkit.

Visit WatchmanMonitoring.com/cmdctrlpwr and sign up for your free trial to find out how Watchman Monitoring can keep an eye on your client machines and notify you of over 100 issues. Be sure to tweet @cmdctrlpwr #CCPsentme to support the show!

TOPICS:

Joanna Stern - Day with Apple Watch 3Apple Watch Series 3 Review: No iPhone, No Problem?http://macs.ws/2x5y8UN

Topics:

This week Command Control Power is joined by not one, but two guests. Adam Engst of TidBITS and Will O'Neal of Mid-Atlantic Computer Solutions. Both guests share their perspectives on the TidBITS Content Network. Adam is the publisher of TidBITS, a free email and web publication for the Macintosh community. He has recently introduced the TidBITS Content Network, which provides professionally written, edited, and illustrated tips and articles that its members can use to update their blogs, create a vibrant social media presence, and power email newsletters that people will actually read. Will O'Neal was one of the first subscribers and both gentlemen offer information on not only the creation of TCN but how it can impact your business. Enjoy!

TidBITS Content Network: https://tcn.tidbits.com/apple-pros/-Sign up for a free trial today and get TCN content from both July and August!”

Adam C. Engst is the publisher of TidBITS, one of the oldest and most-respected Internet-based newsletters, distributed weekly to tens of thousands of readers. He has written numerous technical books, including the best-selling Internet Starter Kit series, and many magazine articles - thanks to Contributing Editor positions at MacUser, MacWEEK, and Macworld. His innovations include the creation of the first advertising program to support an Internet publication in 1992, the first flat-rate accounts for graphical Internet access in 1993 (with Northwest Nexus for Internet Starter Kit for Macintosh), and the highly successful Take Control electronic book series. In addition, he has collaborated on several Internet educational videos and has appeared on a variety of internationally broadcast television and radio programs. His indefatigable support of the Macintosh community and commitment to helping individuals has resulted in numerous awards and recognition at the highest levels. In the annual MDJ Power 25 survey of industry insiders, he ranked as the second (2000), third (2001, 2002), fourth (2003), fifth (2004), and third (2005/2006) most influential person in the Macintosh industry. He has also been included on the MacTech 25 list of influential people in the Macintosh technical community for both 2006 and 2007, and he was named one of MacDirectory's top ten visionaries. And how many industry figures can boast of being turned into an action figure?

Will O'Neal, founder and president of both Mid-Atlantic and Metro-Atlanta Computer Solutions, has been supporting Macintosh for nearly twenty years. He began his career in 1989 operating Linotronic Typesetters for Darby Graphics and worked his way into technical support after becoming an expert with early versions of page layouts, image editing applications and font management issues. He started MACS in 2002. Since then, the company has grown from just Will to twelve Apple enthusiasts, including six Apple Certified outside technicians. Will holds the title of Apple Certified Technical Coordinator, and he regularly attends classes around the world to stay on top of the latest hardware, software and solutions for business of all types and sizes. Because of Will’s vast experience and desire to stay current on ‘all things Apple’, he is also the Lead Technical Advisor for MACS. He has a passion for providing exceptional service and solutions to his customers.

On this show, we are very pleased to welcome Neil Ticktin, Editor in Chief and Publisher of MacTech and Host of MacTech Pro Events. These regional events are perfect for the Apple Consultant looking to gain knowledge on important subject matter and network with their peers. Neil joins us for a show focused on MacTech Pro and the amazing line up of topics:

Topics:

-PsiMac is hiring! Judy offers up details about a full time consulting position at their Norwalk, CT office.

-Jerry, Joe & Sam get together for a rare in person show to celebrate 200 episodes and it goes...well it goes ok. We would like to thank our good friend Tom Bridge for putting us in touch with James Smith. James was instrumental in making the show sound listenable after a very rough recording (it gets better about 20 minutes in).

-Jerry serenades the group and the audience at the opening of the show

-The team discusses a pre-show Google Hangout experience with some of our dedicated listeners

-A little reminiscing and trips down memory lane about the show's humble beginnings

-Down to business, Jerry goes in to a story about Gmail and Outlook 2011 security settings

-A dialogue opens up about cellular carriers and their plans. And how to avoid higher chargers.

-Sam's daughter helps the CCP crew ring in show 200 with a batch of cupcakes

-Don't forget to join us at Aces Conference this year, where we will hold a very special live show!www.acesconf.com

-Sam got hot under the collar dealing with a client's poor planning and working with another vendor

Sam encounters an odd situation with static DNS values ending up in his network settings after visiting a client. Jerry chimes in with the possibility of a hacked router. Sam will follow up on that on a future show.

Gruntwork is the ultimate managed service package for you and your clients. "Think of what you would do when trying to solve a user’s support request: run a disk verification utility. Run permission repair. Update the affected software to the latest version. With Gruntwork, those chores have already been accomplished.Your time spent troubleshooting issues is greatly reduced when the common maladies are already ruled out. Better yet, Gruntwork prevents many common problems, so the Mac just works and you can focus on higher level tasks for your client."

Find out more at - http://mac-msp.com/gruntwork and tell them CCP sent you.

• from Ars Technica Sierra review: "Apple told us it would continue to offer an upgrade path to older Macs that stop at El Capitan but haven't yet been upgraded for whatever reason. While the installer will disappear from the public Mac App Store, anyone without the El Capitan installer already in their purchase history will be able to add it via an Apple support page."

• GateKeeper removes the option to allow apps from "Anywhere" in System Preferences, but the option is still available on the Command Line (sudo spctl --master-disable), or individual apps can still be opened using right-click and then choosing "Open" as before; does the removal of the "Anywhere" option portend a gradual deprecation of the ability to open unsigned apps at all?• to turn off the new Universal Clipboard feature in macOS Sierra, disable Handoff in System Preferences > General; no way to turn off Universal Clipboard but keep HandoffRemote access for business users or teamshttp://www.splashtop.com

Alfred - Productivity App for Mac OS Xhttps://www.alfredapp.com

How to Disable Gatekeeper and Allow Apps From Anywhere in macOS Sierrahttps://www.tekrevue.com/tip/gatekeeper-macos-sierra/

We're sponsored this week by Watchman Monitoring, a favorite tool of ours that should be in every professional consultant's toolkit.

Visit WatchmanMonitoring.com/cmdctrlpwr and sign up for your free trial to find out how Watchman Monitoring can keep an eye on your client machines and notify you of over 100 issues. Be sure to tweet @cmdctrlpwr #CCPsentme to support the show!

TOPICS:

- The CCP crew begins the show sharing some distant and recent client “fails”.

- The Kobayashi Maru is a training exercise in the fictional Star Trek universe designed to test the character of Starfleet Academy cadets in a no-win scenario. The Kobayashi Maru test was first depicted in the opening scene of the film Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan and also appears in the 2009 film Star Trek. Screenwriter Jack B. Sowards is credited with inventing the test. The test's name is occasionally used among Star Trek fans or those familiar with the series to describe a no-win scenario, a test of one's character or a solution that involves redefining the problem.

- latest QuickBooks 2016 (R6) update requires El Capitan whereas previous versions of QuickBooks 2016 would run on Yosemite; kind of bad timing to do this right before a major macOS update, since El Capitan may no longer be easily downloadable after Sierra is released

We are sponsored this week by Prosoft Engineering Inc., and its award-winning Data Rescue software and other software utilities. In 2009, the company expanded by offering data recovery services with the creation of The Data Rescue Center based in Livermore, California. Prosoft Engineering Inc,. and The Data Rescue Center have become recognized as industry-leaders in the field of computer data recovery.

Dialog boxes that show "Cancel" as an option even though the user didn't take action, e.g. Microsoft Office "Do you want to turn on Office reminders? Cancel or Turn On"

Disk Utility doesn't have a log? fsck run from Disk Utility is not logged (I figured I could go back and check it later, client said "completed successfully"), can't even copy text in "show details" view

Alex Narvey updated the R.A.I.S. page on Precursor.ca with an easter egg and photos of home-made T-key dongles - http://precursor.ca

CCP welcomes Matt Woestehoff Director of Business Development and Operations of The Foundation in Greater Minneapolis-St. Paul Area

Quoting Matt's Bio On The Foundation website: "Presenter, listener, growth engineer. I work with companies who understand the value of thinking ahead. We build a strong technological base so that you can Get Back to Work. We help acquire, deploy, and manage iPads, build network infrastructures to support thousands, and help entrepreneurs build their dreams. Born as Apple fan-boys, now recognizing brand-agnostic solutions for any business need. That said, we tend to work with creative agencies. Why? Because we get it. It's what we do."

uninstall Flash Player in Safari for better full screen experience with multi-screen in Mavericks; YouTube's HTML5 player performs better than Flash will less CPU impact; in full screen mode using the Flash Player in Safari on Mavericks

Topics

We discuss aspects of app development including working with contractors, outsourcing, and providing end user support, and explore some pitfalls including user confusion and bias toward negative reviews.

Naturally, we also manage to talk shop. Jerry shares his encounter with permissions issues after migrating from a Time Capsule backup to a new Mac that came home from the Apple Store with a new user account, and Joe describes similar permissions issues when migrating from a clone of a corrupted Time Capsule backup.

We also discuss the importance of protecting sensitive data with FileVault 2, and compare it to PGP Whole Disk Encryption and legacy FileVault.

Plus, a live calendar check with three consultants!

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Command-Control-Power

Cmd-Ctrl-pwr is a weekly podcast hosted by three certified members of the Apple Consultants Network (ACN), drawing from nearly half a century of combined experience operating technology consulting practices.

Command-Control-Power is a weekly podcast hosted by three certified members of the Apple Consultants Network (ACN), drawing from nearly half a century of combined experience operating technology consulting practices.